The present invention relates to an absorbent article such as a sanitary napkin, an absorbent article for urinary incontinence and the like, said absorbent article being preferably disposable and provided with side tabs with adhesive regions that aid in fixing said absorbent article to the wearer""s panties, maintaining it in the correct position and avoiding the occurrence of leakage.
Particularly, the present invention relates to an absorbent article associated with an enveloping sheet suitable for accommodating and enclosing said absorbent before and after its use.
As known from the prior art, absorbent articles are generally disposable and used for collecting and holding vaginal exudates, especially menstrual blood, intermenstrual secretions and also urine in the cases of incontinence.
Typically, such absorbent articles comprise a body of absorbent material, generally planar and elongate in shape, surrounded by a permeable front layer, suitable for entering in contact with the wearer""s body, and an impermeable back layer in contact with her panties.
The permeable front layer is adapted for entering into contact with the wearer""s pelvic region and, in general, it is made of a soft and non-irritating material. According to the present state of the art, this layer may be made of a perforated plastic film, a porous or reticulate foam, a sheet of woven or non-woven material with natural fibers (wood or cotton fibers), artificial fibers (polyester or polypropylene fibers), or else a combination of synthetic or natural fibers.
Said front layer may be of a hydrophobic material, in order to have a tendency to remain dry.
On the other hand, said impermeable back layer has the function of preventing the absorbed and held fluid from passing to the clothes or skin of the wearer, being optionally manufactured from a sheet of polyethylene. Said back layer may be permeable to vapors and, in this case, ft is either provided with small pores or made of a non-woven liquid-impermeable material.
The absorbent articles of the prior art usually have one or more adhesive regions on the surface of the respective impermeable back layers, especially in a central portion in the longitudinal and/or transverse direction thereof, in order to fix the absorbent articles in the inner part of the crotch region of the panties. Said adhesive region may be shaped as a single strip, multiple strips, in a spiral, with stitches or any adequate configuration, and there is a tendency to apply the adhesive to said back layer along one or more longitudinal strips for the sake of processing ease.
Said absorbent body, in turn, may be made from any material capable of absorbing and holding bodily exudates, such as for example wood pulp, bamboo fibers, sugar-cane bagasse, corncob or corn stem, turf moss, absorbent foams or sponges, synthetic or polymeric fibers, superabsorbent materials (which form hydrogels when they enter in contact with liquids), combinations of the above materials and others.
At present, many of the feminine intimate absorbent articles have flexible flaps extending to the sides, for instance, as an extension of one or both of said front and back layers, or still separate from these layers, but associated with the absorbent article. Said flaps serve to fix said absorbent article to the panties, and for this purpose they bend over the edges of the crotch portion of the panties, over the outer layer thereof. Preferably, one of more regions of such flaps have areas coated with adhesives permitting one to secure them to the panties, thus minimizing the displacement of the absorbent article when in use.
Said adhesive regions are preferably located on the back surface of the flaps corresponding, for instance, to an extension of the impermeable back layer of the absorbent article. As known from the prior art, some feminine absorbent articles, such as some designed for night-time use, are longer and have more than one flap on each side of the product, that is to say, each side of the absorbent article has two different flaps, the absorbent article having therefore four flaps. This type of product is also included in the present invention.
Adhesive-coated areas, either on the impermeable back layer of the absorbent article or on the respective flaps, should be protected against any kind of contact before the absorbent article is used, in order to avoid impairing the adhesion power of said regions or causing them to stick in an undesirable manner to the absorbent article or clothes of the wearer, in which case the handling of the absorbent article becomes difficult and eventually inadequate.
For this purpose, protection sheets are traditionally used, which are also known as xe2x80x9crelease papers,xe2x80x9d comprised of a sheet of paper covered with a layer of silicone or antiadherent resin facing the adhesive surface. Said protection sheets are used on the absorbent article prior to use.
Aiming at the comfort of the wearer, absorbent articles have been individually folded and wrapped, so that they can be carried separately and discreetly. However, known individually folded and wrapped products are not very practical, since they require several steps to release the absorbent article from its envelope and fix the absorbent article to the wearer""s panties. Usually said steps involve handling said front and back layers of the absorbent article, thus impairing the hygiene of the absorbent article, which will be in close contact with the pelvic region of the wearer.
Another problem encountered with conventional individually folded and wrapped products is that, after the absorbent article has been released from said envelope, the flaps still remain fixed to each other or to the absorbent body itself. It is then necessary to release these flaps so as to make them available for use.
One of the objectives of the present invention is to provide an individually folded and wrapped product comprising an enveloping sheet suitable for accommodating and enveloping an absorbent article, the enveloping sheet being shaped and folded so as to allow also the wearer to release the absorbent article from the sheet in a single step and, consequently, have minimum contact with the front layer of the absorbent article. This objective is achieved by means of an individually folded and wrapped product comprising 1) and absorbent article comprising a liquid-permeable front layer, a liquid-impermeable back layer comprising adhesive regions, an absorbent body arranged between the front and back layers, and flaps extending laterally from the napkin, and 2) an enveloping sheet, characterized in that said enveloping sheet totally encloses the absorbent article when the absorbent article is transversely folded over itself with the flaps in an open position.
In the prior art there are individually folded and wrapped products similar to that of the invention. However, in the prior art products, the flaps are folded over the absorbent body into a closed position, and only then is the absorbent article enclosed by the enveloping sheet. Such embodiments require great design complexity in locating protection sheets over the adhesive regions, and in folding the absorbent article. According to the present invention, the enclosure of the absorbent article occurs with the side flaps open (regardless of number of flaps, e.g., at least one flap). Assembly of the individually folded and wrapped product is much easier. In addition, opening of the envelope and retrieval of the absorbent article is also easier. The enveloping sheet of this invention tends to be larger than those of the prior art, and for this reason it is more effectively used for disposing used articles.